“Yes, sir.”
“Place detectives in plain clothes in the railway;
steamship, and ferry depots, and upon all roadways
leading out of Jersey City, with orders to search
all suspicious persons.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Furnish all these men with photograph and accompanying
description of the elephant, and instruct them to
search all trains and outgoing ferryboats and other
vessels.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If the elephant should be found, let him be
seized, and the information forwarded to me by telegraph.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let me be informed at once if any clues should
be found footprints of the animal, or anything of
that kind.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Get an order commanding the harbor police to
patrol the frontages vigilantly.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Despatch detectives in plain clothes over all
the railways, north as far as Canada, west as far
as Ohio, south as far as Washington.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Place experts in all the telegraph offices
to listen in to all messages; and let them require
that all cipher despatches be interpreted to them.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let all these things be done with the utmost’s
secrecy—mind, the most impenetrable secrecy.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Report to me promptly at the usual hour.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Go!”
“Yes, sir.”
He was gone.
Inspector Blunt was silent and thoughtful a moment,
while the fire in his eye cooled down and faded out.
Then he turned to me and said in a placid voice:
“I am not given to boasting, it is not my habit;
but—we shall find the elephant.”
I shook him warmly by the hand and thanked him; and
I felt my thanks, too. The more I had seen of
the man the more I liked him and the more I admired
him and marveled over the mysterious wonders of his
profession. Then we parted for the night, and
I went home with a far happier heart than I had carried
with me to his office.
Next morning it was all in the newspapers, in the
minutest detail. It even had additions—consisting
of Detective This, Detective That, and Detective The
Other’s “Theory” as to how the robbery
was done, who the robbers were, and whither they had
flown with their booty. There were eleven of
these theories, and they covered all the possibilities;
and this single fact shows what independent thinkers
detectives are. No two theories were alike,
or even much resembled each other, save in one striking
particular, and in that one all the other eleven theories
were absolutely agreed. That was, that although
the rear of my building was torn out and the only
door remained locked, the elephant had not been removed
through the rent, but by some other (undiscovered)
outlet. All agreed that the robbers had made
that rent only to mislead the detectives. That
